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With donation in hand, institute sets expansion

By: LIBN Staff September 23, 2005Comments Off on With donation in hand, institute sets expansion

MANHASSET – The North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System has renamed its research institute in honor of donors Susan and Leonard Feinstein, who made a multi-million-dollar pledge to help expand the facility.

Leonard Feinstein, who is the co-founder and co-chairman of retailer Bed Bath & Beyond, has been on the institute’s board since 2000.

The donation will help build a 50,000-square-foot, four-story addition to its Institute for Medical Research at North Shore-LIJ, which will be renamed The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. Construction could begin by this November and finish in 2007. The hospital wouldn’t disclose the amount of the donation.

The Feinsteins have long been supporters of research at North Shore-LIJ. In 2000 they donated money to create the Susan and Leonard Feinstein Neuroscience Research Center.

The hospital is planning an event in November to mark the renaming of the institute and unveil detailed plans for the addition.

North Shore-LIJ said the extension, which include state-of-the-art laboratories, will allow it unite all or most its researchers under one roof.

"Right now our researchers are spread out throughout North Shore University Hospital, LIJ, Schneider Children’s Hospital and Zucker Hillside Hospital," said Terry Lynam, a system spokesman. "The plan is to bring nearly all of them into one facility."

North Shore-LIJ also said the larger space will allow it to recruit more researchers and expand research.

Founded in 1999, the institute has grown to more than 150 researchers, including about 40 scientists and staffers who came on board when the organization acquired the Picower Institute for Medical Research in 2002.

North Shore-LIJ’s research arm reels in $26 million in research grants from the National Institutes of Health and Foundations.

In an unrelated development, the institute said Dr. Nicholas Chiorazzi has decided to step down as chief executive officer at the end of the year in order to conduct research full-time.

Dr. Kevin Tracey, who became acting chief operating officer in July as part of a 20-year career with the system, will take the helm as of January 2006.

Tracey became COO after Robin Wittenstein was named chief operating officer and executive vice president at Staten Island University Hospital, part of the North Shore-LIJ system.